While the fact that apparently all committers failed to take notice of this message before I did in the span of eons36 daysan unspecified amount of time probably speaks heaps and bounds on the quality of this proposal, I can't really see a reason why the committers didn't get an email notification about it.

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We have always been very, very conservative when it comes to contacting users by email. Over time, users have suggested sending emails about virtually any type of activity they might possibly be interested in. I hate it when other services send me a constant stream of emails simply because I dared once show interest in something on their system. It becomes very invasive fast.

Frankly, that system message was little more than an after thought — a way to tell users, "A 'Gaming Recommendation' proposal might not be the best use of Stack Exchange. Why don't you try this better solution instead?" It wasn't some cage-rattling event meant to change the entire course of the proposal that everyone must simply be notified about.

Jeff already tweeted about it. Surely you've already had you hand in promoting its use. Beyond that, it didn't feel very grand-announcement-worthy.

Area 51 was envisioned to be a bit more of an iterative process. Users should be checking back periodically to see such developments. But, admittedly, it is still much of a set-it-and-forget-it affair. The up-and-coming meta discussions that are being added to Area 51 might be a first step to bringing interested parties back into the process.

We simply don't want to take a step back into the 1980s by making email the go-to way of contacting users.

Well, at least a simple in-system notification (i.e. like a comment reply triggers) would already be enough and far less intrusive. It's always interesting when checking into Area51 after a month to see a followed proposal has magically vanished from exitence. If I follow 3 proposals that likely don't advance the next day and spent all my votes on them, there's just no need to check Area51 on a daily or even weekly basis.
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Christian RauDec 11 '14 at 15:04